Apparatus for separating fibers

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to apparatus for separating a specialty fiber such as cashmere from its natural guard hair. The organization employs an air baffle and rotating comb and brush cylinders to create an air flow about the comb cylinder which transports the desired &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;down&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; fibers to a collecting chamber, but which rejects the undesirable guard hair.

United States Patent William C. Menzies, Jr.

Charlotte, N.C.

Nov. 14, 1967 May 25, 1971 Atlantic Wool Combins Co.

Charlotte, N.C.

Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 472,974, July 19, 1965, now abandoned.

Inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING FIBERS 1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl l9/97.5, 19/105,19/156.4,19/112 Int. Cl D01b 3/00 Field of Search 19/98, 105, 203, 204, 205, 88, 89,1563, 156.4, 112, 1 14, 97, 97.5

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,290,747 1/1919 Howe 19/105 2,731,676 1/1956 Apthorp et al.... 19/114 2,825,097 3/1958 Kyame 19/97X 2,912,720 11/1959 Vandergriffet a1 19/105X F OREIGN PATENTS 917,615 2/1963 Great Britain 19/105 955,841 4/ 1964 Great Britain 19/203 Primary ExaminerDorsey Newton Attorney-Ryder & Hefter ABSTRACT: The invention relates toapparatus for separating a specialty fiber such as cashmere from its natural guard hair. The organization employs an air baffle and rotating comb and brush cylinders to create an air flow about the comb cylinder which transports the desired down" fibers to a collecting chamber, but which rejects the undesirable guard hair.

PATENTEU was mu SHEET 2 OF 3 INVHN'H )R WILL 1AM C. MENI/ES A'rmi EYS PATENTEUmzsmn 3579144 SHEET 3 or 3 INVENTOR. Will/AM C MENZ/ES' A770 NEYS DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus for processing specialty fibers such as cashmere and, more specifically, to the separation of the desired cashmere down fibers from its guard hair.

Cashmere down is a wool derived from the undercoat of a particular breed of foreign goat. In common with other specialty fibers, the desired soft down fibers are extracted from the animal along with natural guard hair which is of a larger diameter and usually longer than the down, andwhich is undesirable in the preparation of cashmere yarn.

The distinction between the down and guard hair is not capable of a precise natural definition. The American Society of Testing and Materials is currently proposing a standard which defines cashmere down as comprising those fibers hav ing a diameter of 30 microns or less. Correspondingly, fibers of a diameter greater than 30 microns have been classified as guard hair. Accordingly, the raw goats wool must be processed to isolate those fibers in thedefined down range.

The cotton processing art has long been aware of apparatus for cleansing dirt and other trash particles from a raw cotton batt. Such arrangements typically include a feed pedal and an associated rotating comb cylinder, or licker-in, spaced a significant portion of an inch apart. Wire teeth are included on the face of the licker-in to physically engage and hold tufts of cotton supplied by a feed roll and the pedal, and to convey the cotton to a receiving chamber. A rotating brush is employed to remove the cotton from the wire barbs for depositing in the receiving chamber. Vibrations induced in the. rotated cotton (often enhanced by grate of knife apparatus disposed in the path of the cotton tufts) are operative to expel the trash from the cotton. These undesirable particles then fall into a bin beneath the licker-in under the force of gravity.

However, such cotton cleaning machines have proved unsuitable to separate cashmere down from its guard hair. In particular, the very similar physical properties of the down and.

hair cause the licker-in in the prior art cleaning apparatus to convey both types of fiber to the receiving chamber, and hence do not effect the desired separation operation. Also, the relatively large licker-in-pedal spacing in such machines renders the licker-in inoperative to separate the down and hair fibers included in the input batt.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide specialty fiber processing apparatus which rapidly, reliably, and efficiently separates the down fibers from its natural occurring guard hair.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention are realized in an illustrative specialty fiber processing apparatus shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. I is a side view of a dehairing apparatus embodying the feed'roll and comb with relative working positions of each;

and

FIG. 5 depicts the wire disposed about the comb.

Referring now to FIGS. l-3, there is shown a conveying apron I which delivers scoured cashmere, or other scoured dehairable fiber 20 between a fluted roll 6 and a pedal 3. The fiber material 20 includes a mixture of both down and guard hair. The pedal 3 and feed roll 6 are adjusted to a spacing in the range 0.0030.007 inches of each other, and preferably to'a spacing of 0.003 inch. Each dehairing section is composed of one fluted roll 6 and a multiplicity of pedals 3 (as shown in FIG. 2) depending on the width of the given machine. The scoured fiber is fed at a uniform rate of about 1% feet per minute by the conveying apron l; and the surface speed of roll 6 is slightly faster than the surface speed of apron 1 to maintain a good flow of material. The scoured material is tightly held between pedal 3 and feed roll 6 yet propelled forward at a slow rate by the rotation of feed roll 6 in the direction shown (preferably about 24 revolutions per minute and a peripheral speed of about 1% to 3 feet per minute).

Once the fibers have passed point 3A they are worked on by the sharp wire points of the rotating cylinder 8 which serves a dual purpose. First, the very close spacing between the cylinder 8 and the pedal 3, not present in prior art cotton processing arrangements, permits the wire points to open and individually separate the tangled and sometimes felted mass of down and hair fibers while not physically engaging and holding any felted tufts of the mixed fibers. Also, the wire propels the separated hair fibers into the dead air space directly below this high speed cylinder. The hair is larger in diameter and usually greater in length than the down fibers, as quantitatively discussed hereinabove. Therefore, the hair possesses a greater natural rigidity and mass than the down" fibers.

It is this greater rigidity and mass that allows this separation to take place at this point through an energy balance mechanism when the fringe of fibers is advanced at a slow rate to this high-speed, sharp wire cylinder 8. It is essential that this roll travel at an optimum peripheral speed, preferably about 1,600 feet per minute, to effect the most efi'rcient hair separation. Also the wire of this cylinder must be doffed clean of all fibers by brush 9 in order that only clean wire be presented to the advancing fibrous fringe at all times. The peripheral speed of brush 9 is preferably about twice that of comb 8. The wire 17 used on comb 8, shown in expanded form in FIG. 5, is preferably Type A fine pitch with extra bumishing having an open throat like that used on a British textile machine known as a Shirley Analyzer." The wire is preferably set on the comb 8 with about 8 l0 spirals per inch with teeth out with a rake angle of about 12 from vertical (throat opening of 39).

At each section of dehairing, the guard hair is expelled beneath the comb cylinder 8, while the down is carried principally by the bound air layer about the cylinder 8 to brush 9 (which preferably has nylon bristles) where its path is changed and these fibers are thrown by the air stream created by brush 9 into chamber 18 and then collected onto the slowly rotating perforated. cylinder 13. The rotational speeds of the comb cylinder 8 and the brush 9 are adjusted as above described to cooperate with an air baffle 10 such that the bound air layer about the element 8 is of a velocity to convey the cashmere down to the chamber 18, but insufficient to transport the slightly larger guard hair. The guard hair 21 is thus expelled beneath the cylinder 8, as shown in FIG. 3. The air is free to pass directly through this hollow condenser 13 and be dissipated in the air surrounding the machine. Wooden roll 12 is held with pressure against condenser 13 by spring 1213. It is necessary'to drive roll 12 positively, since it is the interaction of condenser 13 and roll 12 to compress the mass of fibers accumulated on condenser 13 and in chamber 18 and to present a web or mat of fibers to the next dehairing section which works exactly like the first. Since a number of successive dehairing sections are usually needed to dehair the stock completely (to within 0. l percent or less in some cases) the fibers 21 that are thrown out at subsequent sections to the first may contain some down which may be added to the incoming stock or dehaired on a separate machine. At the first dehairing section, dandruff, shive, sand and other heavy impurities are thrown out, along with the guard hair. 7

The air baffle 10 is hinged and adjustable for proper control of air during the operation of the machine to give the best results for the particular fiber being dehaired. The air baffle 10 and the velocities of the comb 8 and the brush 9 are adjusted so that there is no substantial reduction of pressure at the bottomof cylinder 8. Otherwise, the guard hair would be carried along with the down about the cylinder 8 and would not be separated therefrom.

Referring to FIG. 1, 1A is drive means for roll 13 which in turn drives apron l, and 6A, 8A, 9A, 12A and 13A are drive means for roll 6, cylinder 8, brush 9 and cylinders 12 and 13, respectively. 7

Referring to FIG. 3, each pedal 3 is connected to an arm 2 which may be used to raise or lower the pedal. The end of each arm 2 has a bore hole 16 which is threaded to mate with the threads of rod 16A which is used to adjust the height of arm 2. Threaded rod 16A is advanced or retracted by turning and rests on channel member 15 and is firmly held there by spring 14 which urges arm 2 downward. After arm 2 is thus adjusted as desired, nut 16B is tightened downward to maintain the adjustment of rod 16A against vibration. Pedal 3 is pivoted on the fulcrum bar 4 and by adjustment of arm 2 is set at a distance from roll 6 which will depend on the thickness of stock being fed at any given time. Fulcrum support 5 has a welded element 5A attached for horizontal stability. Support.

means for the various portions of the apparatus are conventional and not shown. This fulcrum assembly (4, 5 and 5A) must be very rigid, otherwise the pedals at the middle of the machine would be drawn toward the teeth of cylinder comb 8 and polished pedal surfaces destroyed, thereby rendering them useless. A cover 7 encloses comb 8 and brush 9. A knife edge 11 is adjustable to almost touch the bristles of the brush thereby creating an effective fiber doffing point by preventing the bound air layer around brush 9 from going beyond this edge. Housing 19, which may be of sheet metal, provides a bottom for the fiber collecting chamber.

Referring to FIG. 4, each pedal 3 has a concave face which has a radius of curvature approximately equal to the radius of roll 6, and the distance from the center of bar 4 to point P between pedal 3 and cylinder 8 is approximately equal to the radius of curvature of that convex portion of each pedal adjacent to cylinder comb 8. With this configuration, the portion of pedal 3 adjacent to cylinder 8 is always substantially tangent to it at point P regardless of the thickness of stock feed between pedal 3 and roll 6; and pedal 3 may be adjusted to provide as small a clearance as 0.003 inches throughout the concave portion of the pedal adjacent roll 6. Similarly, the

outer portion of pedal 3 may be very close to, but not in actual contact with, comb 8 (which may, by means not shown, be adjusted laterally so that the clearance between each pedal and the cylindrical comb may be varied from 0.003 to 0.007 of an inch).

By use of the apparatus described hereinabove, cashmere may be efficiently dehaired in a manner not possible with prior machines. Other specialty fibers, such as camel hair. or the like, may similarly be processed by a machine embodying the above principles, with suitable scaling changes. 7 i I lclaim: i 1. A machine for separating cashmere down from its guard hair comprising pedals, a drive roll cooperating with said pedals for supplying a mixture of said down and said guard hair, down receiving means, airflow-producing means for conveying said down but not said guard hair from said drive roll and said pedals to said receiving means, said airflow-conveying means including an air bafile, a rotating combing cylinder adjacent to said pedals, a rotating brush disposed above said combing cylinder and intermediate said combing cylinder and said receiving means, and means for pivoting each of said pedals at a point wherein each of said pedals has a concave face and an outer convex portion, said drive roll cooperating with said concave face of each pedal and said combing cylinder cooperating with said outer convex portion, the radius of curvature of said concave face being approximately equal to the radius of said drive roll and the radius of curvature of said outer convex portion being approximately equal to the distance from said pivot to said outer convex portion, and wherein the periphery of said combing cylinder is spaced a distance from said outer convex portion of said pedal falling within the range 0.003 inches to 0.007 inches, and further comprising means for rotating said combing cylinder with a eri heral speed of approximately 1,600 feed er minute, and urt er comprising type A fine pitch wire wit extra burmshing and an open throat mounted about said combing cylinder, said wire having a number of spirals per inch in the range 8- -l0, with teeth cut at a rake angle of approximately 12 

1. A machine for separating cashmere down from its guard hair comprising pedals, a drive roll cooperating with said pedals for supplying a mixture of said down and said guard hair, down receiving means, airflow-producing means for conveying said down but not said guard hair from said drive roll and said pedals to said receiving means, said airflow-conveying means including an air baffle, a rotating combing cylinder adjacent to said pedals, a rotating brush disposed above said combing cylinder and intermediate said combing cylinder and said receiving means, and means for pivoting each of said pedals at a point wherein each of said pedals has a concave face and an outer convex portion, said drive roll cooperating with said concave face of each pedal and said combing cylinder cooperating with said outer convex portion, the radius of curvature of said concave face being approximately equal to the radius of said drive roll and the radius of curvature of said outer convex portion being approximately equal to the distance from said pivot to said outer convex portion, and wherein the periphery of said combing cylinder is spaced a distance from said outer convex portion of said pedal falling within the range 0.003 inches to 0.007 inches, and further comprising means for rotating said combing cylinder with a peripheral speed of approximately 1,600 feed per minute, and further comprising type A fine pitch wire with extra burnishing and an open throat mounted about said combing cylinder, said wire having a number of spirals per inch in the range 8-10, with teeth cut at a rake angle of approximately 12* . 